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Quiz Monkey |
In this section you're given the nickname of something and you have to say what that nickname refers to. (Part Two has a few where you're given a description of the thing and you have to give its nickname.)
Q: Which (city, etc.) is sometimes/was once known as ... ? | A: | |
The Year of the Four Emperors (in ancient Rome) |
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AD 69 |
The Year of the Six Emperors (also in ancient Rome) |
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AD 238 |
The Year of Revolutions (because of a surge in political unrest and insurrection in continental Europe) |
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1848 |
The Summer of Love |
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1967 |
Bloody Sunday (Londonderry) |
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30 January 1972 |
The Year of the Three Popes (20th century) |
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1978 |
The Winter of Discontent (a period of industrial strife in the UK, leading to the downfall of a government) |
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1978–9 |
The Glorious Twelfth
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12 August |
The Devil's Bedpost (playing card)
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4 of Clubs |
The Curse of Scotland (don't ask why – nobody really knows) |
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9 of Diamonds |
A Baker's Dozen |
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13 |
The Granite City |
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Aberdeen |
The Green Fairy, or The Green Muse |
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Absinthe |
The Death Card
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Ace of Spades |
Paddy's Milestone (an uninhabited rock in the Firth of Clyde) |
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Ailsa Craig |
Seward's Folly (bought from Russia for $7.2m in 1867) |
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Alaska |
The Frying Pan (London racecourse, closed in 1970) |
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Alexandra Park |
The Venice of the North |
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City of Sails (due to its unique position, with distinct bodies of water on either side, and the resulting
proliferation of sailing boats; Commonwealth city)![]() |
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Auckland |
Battle of the Three Emperors (Austria and Russia vs. France, 1805) |
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Austerlitz |
St. Lubbock's Days (after the MP who drafted the bill that enacted them, 1871) |
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Bank Holidays |
The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street |
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The Bank of England |
The Cockpit of Europe (because of the number of decisive battles fought on its soil) |
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Belgium |
Workshop of the World, City of a Thousand Trades |
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Birmingham |
The Queen among drinks |
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Bloody Mary |
Beantown, The Athens of America |
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Boston |
The Great White Way (New York street – refers particularly to the Theater District, because of the proliferation of lights – newspaper headline 1902) |
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Broadway |
The Jewel of the Cotswolds (Worcestershire village) |
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Broadway |
The Fortunate Islands |
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Canaries |
The Mother City, or The Tavern of the Seas |
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Cape Town |
The Spanish Main is the coastline of the |
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Caribbean Sea |
French luxury goods company, founded in 1847: dubbed by Edward VII "the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers" |
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Cartier |
The Dead Heart of Africa (because of its central location and arid climate) |
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Chad |
The Windy City
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Chicago |
City of the Plains; the Garden City (New Zealand) |
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Christchurch |
Capital of the Cotswolds |
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Cirencester |
The Square Mile |
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City of London |
Old Ironsides (the US navy's most famous ship) |
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USS Constitution |
The Pearl of the Antilles |
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Cuba (also Haiti) |
The World's Oldest City (self–styled – mentioned in Genesis) |
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Damascus |
Tin Pan Alley (London) |
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Denmark Street |
The Mile High City |
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Denver, Colorado |
Motor City, Motown (USA) |
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Detroit |
The Devil's bones |
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Dice |
Devil's darning needle |
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Dragonfly |
Queen of the South |
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Dumfries |
The Edinburgh of the South (New Zealand city)
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Dunedin |
Land of the Prince Bishops |
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County Durham |
The Athens of the North, Auld Reekie |
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Edinburgh |
The Ship of the Fens |
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Ely Cathedral |
The Wingless Wonders (1966) |
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England |
Ireland's Teardrop (said to be because it was the last Irish land seen by transatlantic emigrants) |
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Fastnet |
Land of a Thousand Lakes (country – cf. Minnesota) |
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Finland |
The Sweeney (Sweeney Todd – rhyming slang) |
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Flying Squad |
Poilu (WWI) |
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French soldier |
City of the Tribes
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Galway |
30 St. Mary Axe, London (formerly the Swiss Re building; built on the site of the Baltic Exchange building, bombed by the IRA in 1992) |
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The Gherkin |
The Old Firm: the two major football clubs of |
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Glasgow |
The Clockwork Orange is the underground railway of | ||
Glen of weeping (the meaning of its Gallic name) |
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Glencoe |
Lady of the stream (fish species) |
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Grayling |
Steel City (Ontario) |
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Hamilton |
Brown sugar |
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Heroin (low grade) |
Mr. Balfour's Poodle (according to David Lloyd George) |
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The House of Lords |
The Brickyard |
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Indianapolis Raceway |
The Emerald Isle, John Bull's Other Island |
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Ireland |
Fool's gold (mineral)
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Iron pyrites |
The Queen of the Hebrides |
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Islay |
The '45 (historical event) |
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Jacobite rising (1745) |
Thor's Hammer: the right hand of (Swedish boxer) |
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Ingemar Johansson |
The Garden of England |
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Kent |
The Run for the Roses (horse race) |
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Kentucky Derby |
Sin City, City of Lights, The Gambling (or Entertainment, or Marriage) Capital of the World, Capital of Second Chances, The Silver City, America's Playground |
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Las Vegas |
Queen of the Moorlands (Staffordshire town) |
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Leek |
The Forbidden City |
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Lhasa |
Paddy's Wigwam is the Roman Catholic cathedral of |
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Liverpool |
The Great Wen (to William Cobbett) |
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London |
The Scottish play (by actors etc., who consider it unlucky to say its proper name) |
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Macbeth |
The George Cross Island |
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Malta |
Cottonopolis (being the centre of Britain's cotton industry, from the Industrial Revolution onwards) |
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Manchester |
Gate of Tears (Bridge of Tears, in Verne's Around the World in 80 Days); separates the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden |
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Mandab Strait |
The Red Planet |
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Mars |
The Race that Stops a Nation (Australia's most prestigious horse race) |
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Melbourne Cup |
City of Lakes, Mill City, or Mini Apple |
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Minneapolis |
Land of Ten Thousand Lakes (US state – cf. Finland) |
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Minnesota |
The Big Muddy
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Missouri River |
Tin Lizzie |
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Model 'T' Ford |
The Wooden Wonder, The Timber Terror (de Havilland multi-role combat aircraft, serving durina and after WWII – a.k.a. the Mossie) |
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Mosquito |
The Big Easy |
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New Orleans |
The Big Apple |
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New York |
Land of the Midnight Sun |
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Norway |
The Sick Man of Europe (19th century) |
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Ottoman Empire (Turkey) |
City of Dreaming Spires |
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Oxford |
City of Light(s) |
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Paris |
Backbone of England (mountain range) |
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Pennines |
The Devil's picture books |
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Playing cards |
The Black forty–seven (Ireland, 1847) |
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Potato famine |
The Fourth Estate![]() |
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The press |
Showplace of the Nation (New York building, developed 1929–40) |
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Radio City Music Hall |
Grand Old Party (US) |
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Republican Party |
The Eternal city |
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Rome |
The Great C Major (symphony) |
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Schubert's 9th |
Land o' Cakes (description used by Fergusson and Burns – referring to the popularity of oatcakes) |
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Scotland |
Disease popularly known as 'the King's Evil' in mediaeval England and France, because it was believed to be cured by a touch from the king or queen |
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Scrofula |
The Granary of Europe (formerly) |
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Sicily |
Catherine Cookson Country |
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South Tyneside |
The Ladies of the Vale |
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Spires of Lichfield cathedral |
The Drawing Room of Europe
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St. Mark's Square, Venice |
New York: the Big Board |
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Stock Exchange |
Mother Carey's chicken |
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Stormy petrel |
Lighthouse of the Mediterranean (believed to have been erupting continuously for over 2,000 years) |
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Stromboli |
Copperopolis (a key centre of the UK's copper industry in the 19th century; cf. Cottonopolis) |
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Swansea |
The Coathanger (iconic Australian landmark) |
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Sydney Harbour Bridge |
The French disease (in England), the English disease (in France), the Spanish disease (in Italy), the Polish disease (in Russia), the Christian disease (in Muslim countries); etc., etc. … |
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Syphilis |
The Roof of the World (an autonomous region of China) |
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Tibet |
The Thunderer (from 1830) |
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The Times |
Once known as 'the Friendly Islands', because of the congenial reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773 |
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Tonga |
Billy Williams's Cabbage Patch |
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Twickenham Stadium |
Old Glory |
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US national flag |
Doughboy |
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US soldier (WWI) |
The Bride of the Sea, La Serenissima |
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Venice |
The Morning Star, the Evening Star, the Horned Planet |
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Venus |
Denver boot (US – after the first US city to use them) |
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Wheel clamp |
The Gun that Won the West (mainly due to 20th century fictional accounts) |
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Winchester '73 or '74 |
The Faithful City (for loyalty to the Crown in the Civil War) |
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Worcester |
(China's) Mother River, China's Pride, China's Sorrow, the Cradle of Chinese Civilisation |
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Yellow River |
In this section you're given a description of the thing, or its proper name, and you have to give its nickname.
© Haydn Thompson 2017–24